Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - I Kissed Shara Wheeler

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

25 reviews

violetbooklover's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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markwillnevercry's review against another edition

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4.5

This was great. I had very low expectations, because, first of all, I had to read this book in a day-ish both times I picked it up (I did not read anything the first time I had to pick it up, got busy with the Priory of the Orange Tree, because I thought that I could finish both of those books on a three day vacation, but instead I was stuck in a middle of family conflict, that was not even my family's conflict). Anyway, that is not important here. Book was great, I really liked it, I might even reread it one day. It is just one of those queer comfort reads, where everyone who matters are queer and homophobs get at least a part of what they deserve and it feels right. I do not know if I will ever reread it, so it is not 5 stars, but I still really liked it and if you are thinking "Hm, do I wanna read this book?". Yeah, you do, just do it, it is a great experience.
Just a reminder, this book suffers from the "Everything there is so good" syndrome. When you look back from this book on your life and remember the shit you are forced to deal with every day, it is not going to be the greatest experience of your life, you are going to be overwhelmed. The books are for dreaming, we just need to remember that it is more important how happy we are about our dreams and that we can push through understanding that dreams are not reality yet.

Reading notes:

Chloe: “I am not going to fall into Shara Wheeler’s game”
Also Chloe: *goes to find her*

Huh, I see Smith is just sport.
Yo, this is a YA novel where the main character says “I don’t drink” and people listen.

So Smith is queer? Glad we established that. (Chloe literally was like “The only people being cool with me being queer is other queer people. Hm.”)

How did Chloe not figure out yet that Smith and Rory were best friends?

Oh no, it is the part of the book, where the main character ignores their best friend in the middle of something really important.

Rory is way too obsessed with Shara, it is kinda weird.

Rory is like, a very privileged dyslexic person? I am dyslexic and I never ask people to read stuff to you, you just force yourself to get better, because people are not always going to be there. Sounds rough, but it is not realistic for him to not be able to read things like labels with two letters and he will not immediately hand stuff to other people.

Shara probably wrote notes for Rory and Smith too, they just did not share them with each other (Chloe included) in the same way that Chloe will not share hers. Also, white font colour is not invisible ink.

Why did we stop counting down the days to graduation?

Maybe, I got overconfident in the book and it is actually written for straight people, seeing the whole dialog between Smith and Ash.

Rory is gonna come to the conclusion that he is either not interested in girls or not interested in anyone and he was only interested in Shara, because it seemed like the right thing, right?

So Shara did make her lose by taking all her attention. And friendships too.

Bro, Smith told you that Shara is also his, like, best friend, of course he cared enough about her to keep calling her. You do not have to date someone to call them, when they disappear.

It is kinda funny that Shara would jump out of a car to not think that she might be gay.

Me when I agree with Shara. I totally expected her and Chloe to get right into doing stuff the second they got into Chloe’s home. The vibes are immaculate.

I wish there wasn’t the whole stereotype of “Yeah, my parents explained me sex, but it was way too awkward”. Like they might as well just read you bible.

I AM LISTENING TO THE AUDIOBOOK AND THE PERSON READ OUT SHFJSDKHFJSDHF AND THAT IS SUCH A VIBE.

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itsheyfay's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I found it hard to root for the main couple just because they were both kinda awful people, and I really didn’t like Chloe as the lead character (but that may be due to the audiobook).

But I really liked how McQuiston wrote the friendships and developed the characters.

Not too bad for a YA romance, and not too bad for my first Casey McQuiston novel.

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beth_s98's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is a book I could have used at the end of my senior year of high school, and I’m so glad it is out in the world now. The only reason it doesn’t get a full five stars is because the middle act of the story lost my attention, and I did struggle to get though a few chapters. However, the last act gave me the warm and fuzzies.

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adrienreads's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

A fun read - read this for a book club, and finished it, which is more than I could say for most fiction for a long time. I mostly listened to the audiobook.

The characters are often unlikeable, but in a sort of "I'm in this picture and I don't like it" way - definitely relatable to the ways teenagers can be flawed, at least retrospectively for me. That meant that sometimes it was cathartic, but a lot of the time I was just kind of miserable.

I don't usually enjoy this type of book, so don't take my review too seriously if you do. There is a lot of heart put into this book by the author, so if the premise appeals to you, might be worth giving it a try.

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gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Details:
Narrated by Natalie Naudus
Unabridged

A gorgeously queer rivals to lovers cat-and-mouse YA mystery, serving a tie up of Looking for Alaska and Pretty Little Liars, in tone.

My favourite thing about this book was that it had amazing conversation on gender and sexuality, and discussion on how being queer and religious can be difficult but achievable in a small town (with various perspectives on this).

For characters, we don't get direct, present input from Shara until much later in the story but even by the end, I found her to be insufferable. I did warm up to her a little bit, but I just didn't vibe with her attention seeking expoits and how she used people. I really enjoyed getting more of a character breakdown from her and seeing her vulnerabilities unearthed eventually, but I still can't say I liked her.
I felt like Chloe's motives for looking for Shara was too obsessive and strange that it was just to beat her with school grades and becoming the valedictorian. I know there was so much more to it (and I'm glad I stuck around to find this out) but it wasn't a plot development that kept me hooked, especially early on.
I also struggled to see this bad bitch personality that apparently Chloe was known for (as well as the - and I paraphrase this here - 'big-boobed lesbian'). It felt more told than shown and maybe I just couldn't believe that someone can radiate bad bitch energy with such an irritating voice... it just gives the game away.

Talking of voices...
Some of the voices put on were really silly and unbelievable (e.g. Benji and Shara were major examples for this). These times I couldn't help but be pulled out of the narrative. I got used to it eventually but every now and then I'd just stutter-giggle at the absurdity of how they sounded, which is awful when I really think about it....

I adored the banding together of different cliques and the breaking down of social constraints in the face of adversity towards diversity and being unapologetically who you are. That was a bold and beautiful goal that I think the author smoothly curved the direction towards being the overarching narrative.

I throughly enjoyed the last 35% of the story more than the actual hide and seek of the main storyline and if we had more that then this would probably have been more loved from me, but I understand that this would then be a very different book...

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